New Samsung Chromebook reportedly in the works, to launch in 2014

Samsung is reportedly working on a new Chromebook that would make its debut sometime in 2014, according to a new report from the Korean media.

The new Chromebook from Samsung will purportedly pack an Exynos 5 Octa 5420 chipset under the hood. This processor is based on big.LITTLE technology, featuring four low-power Cortex A7 1.3GHz cores alongside four high-power Cortex A15 1.8GHz cores.

According to a new report from Business Korea, the new Chromebook should hit store shelves sometime in 2014. The device is expected to sport a 12-inch or smaller display with a high resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. Other rumored specs include 3GB of RAM, Mali T628 graphics, 16GB or 32GB solid state disk (SSD) storage, USB 3.0, and a battery life of up to seven hours.

Samsung's new ARM Chromebook is expected to come at a price point similar to the previous model, i.e. somewhere between $250 and $300. The report further notes that industry insiders expect Samsung to unveil its new Chromebook at the International CES 2014, which takes place on Jan. 7 - 10.

On the other hand, Samsung denied the expected CES unveiling for its new Chromebook. It did not, however, deny that it does have a new Chromebook in the works for 2014.

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"We are planning to unveil no laptops during the CES 2014 period," said the company, as cited by Business Korea.

Chromebooks aim to offer a low-cost alternative for consumers looking for a decent laptop. Such devices run on Google's Chrome OS and use Google's Web Office, storing all data in the cloud. With data stored on Google's cloud server, Chromebooks don't require high-performance hardware components or large internal storage capacity.

Such laptops running Google's Chrome OS come from various companies, including Samsung, and generally cost about half the price of an average laptop. Chromebooks are mainly used for educational purposes in developing countries, but they haven't really taken off to see a wider adoption.

It remains to be seen whether Samsung's purported new Chromebook can bring something more to the table and attract more users to the platform. For the time being, however, take this report with a grain of salt.